the "timing is everything and i'm an idiot" question

[tenax]

so, we haven't been swimming in our pool for about a month as that's how long i've been waiting to get my new heater, SWG and pump hooked up..the my old pump is running, but , let's say i've been a little lax on my pool chem testing and taking the cover off often enough..here's the situation:

pool appeared fine with the test kit last tuesday..it had been 4 days since i checked it, so i pulled my solar cover partially off in 2 spots..looked clear, albeit dirty..my chlorine was at 5ish. so, i left it about another 4 days to saturday, pulled the cover off and lots of algae (we continued to have hot weather and one night of good hard rain..cover was on so don't know how much got in the pool) anyhew..bonehead that i was, i didn't vacuum it..i brushed it and added 2 gallons of chlorine..took the cover off and left it off, started running the pump 24/7,but of course the pool was a big green murk from my brushing..sunday, i check it and chlorine level is good, but likely not high enough...add 6 more gallons of chlorine over 12 hours and continue to run pump cause here is the problem..tomorrow, they are coming to hook up everything so the pump will be off for most of the day and i was hoping for clear so i could run my new SWG.

come home today..it's turquoise, still a bit of algae still quite cloudy but on the road to recovery..dosed it with 2 more gallons of chlorine cause the level is about 6...it's getting eaten with the algae.

clearly, it's not going to be algae free or clear by tomorrow. the questions i have are:

-my thinking is to dump a few more gallons in tonight before i go to bed as it's going to be hot tomorrow again..and i can't run the pump between about 6am and 6pm when the work will be done. at least even if it's not circulating tomorrow, it will have a bit does of chlorine and should be ok and not go backwards.

-aside from the "test" to make sure the SWG is working once things are done tomorrow, don't run it until i get the pool clear of all algae again as i don't want to use the SWG to super chlorinate ever....

otherwise, my cya and salt levels are ready to go for the SWG..all other chem levels are good.

does my plan make sense?

[mas985]

I assume that if your SWG is ready to go then your CYA is in the 60-80 ppm range. If so, then CL should be upwards of 20 ppm for a good algae kill according to Ben's table. I would keep it up there until it is completely gone. It is probably a good idea to keep the SWG off until the algae is gone.

[tenax]

thanks, mas..yes, matter of fact it's exactly in that range. one more question i forgot to ask..tomorrow, while the pool is being worked on ,do you think i should put the cover back on (chlorine will be high, but algae will still be present) or better off to continue to leave off for now?thanks again.

[Simmons99]

I was under the impression that you don't want to place a cover on a pool that you are shocking - it will wear out your cover faster

[tenax]

that's a good point..i do leave it on when i add smaller amounts of bleach but i haven't with "bulk"..i think i'll leave it off until i'm done shocking and get to normal levels..thanks!